mosaic | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘mosaic’

a dome above all else

Posted: July 25, 2019 in locations
Tags: architecture, cathedral, church, coptic, cross, doors, Markham, mosaic, mural, St. Marks, Steeles, tiles, Warden, windows, wood

I was driving south on Warden the other day when I spotted a large church dome.

This is St. Marks Coptic Orthodox Cathedral near Warden and Steeles. The Coptic, or Egyptian, Church is believed to have been founded by St Mark at around AD 42 in Alexandria Egypt. It split from the rest of the Christendom in 451. In the 600s, Egypt was ruled by Islamic conquerors but it wasn’t until the 12th century that Coptics became a religious minority.

Construction of the church began around 2008/9 and was completed by 2015. It was officially opened by Pope Tawadros II who is the 118th pope in the Coptic church. The Roman Catholic Church and the Coptic Church are the only two religions in the world led by a “pope”.

below: Seven large carved wood doors. The colour of the exterior is reminiscent of desert sand.

A large mosaic mural across the top of the church is almost complete. It has been grouted and now is being cleaned.

below: Come out of Egypt my son, Matthew 2:15

below: The interior of the church is massive; under the dome, the nave is just over 29m high. There is seating for 1800 people.

As I was walking around the church, I spotted another cross just to the north – the Toronto Christian Community Church – with a different style of architecture. The name of the church was also written in Chinese but the church functions in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. It was built in 2001.

Aga Khan Park

Posted: October 20, 2018 in galleries
Tags: Aga Khan museum, art, bottles, chairs, display, exhibit, glass, history, interior, Ismaili Centre, Javid Jah, knife, light, marble, medallion, mosaic, muqarna, Muslin, painting, reflections, room, stone, The Encompassing, wall, water

below: ‘The Encompassing’ by street artist Javid (aka JAH) stands in one of the reflecting pools between the Ismaili Centre and the Aga Khan Museum. This is one of a number of pieces on display. Each is painted on reclaimed corrugated metal. They are an examination of the geometry in Islamic patterns and architecture. His work will remain on display until the 31st of October.

below: On the other side of the above painting, is this one – “Beyond”, also by Javid. The Ismaili Centre is in the background with its large pale blue dome over the prayer room.

below: The large wood beams that cover the entrance to the Ismaili Centre were being re-stained this morning.

The Toronto Ismaili Centre is one of 6 around the world. It was designed by Indian architect Charles Correa and opened in 2014. If you go on the tour of the inside of the Ismaili Centre, you will see a building that is filled with natural light, as well as natural woods and stone.

below: A calligraphy based medallion made of stone is on a white wall. The Arabic word ‘allah’ is in the center and surrounding it are the ninety nine attributes of God, written in Arabic.

below: A closer look at the wall. It took two men, a father and son, fourteen months to carve the design into this wall and a matching wall on the other side of the room. They worked six days a week . The arabesque design was penciled on using a stencil and then carved by hand.

below: A second medallion is on a wall across the room from the one above (on the other wall that was carved).

Crossing back past the reflecting pools to the Aga Khan Museum….

below: Another Javid Jah painting, this time “The Manifest”. (To the left, you can see a metal sculpture called “Big Heech” ). Like all of Jah’s paintings here, this one is based on geometry. The basic shape here is a pentagon (sacral chakra) and it is seen on the floor. This type of archway is called a muqarna and it is unique to muslim architecture. Here the shape of the indentations in the muqarna are based on the pentagon.

The “Big Heech” is the work of Parviz Tanavoli, made from stainless steel in 2014. It is derived from the Persian word for “nothingness” and it is an important word in Perian Sufism.

“Emperors and Jewels: Treasures of the Indian Court from the Al-Sabah Collection in Kuwait”, is a temporary exhibit at the Aga Khan Museum featuring artworks and historical objects from the treasuries of Mughal emperors. The Mughal Empire ruled most of present day Pakistan and India in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Mughals were Muslim but the majority of the population were Hindu.

below: Part of a larger picture depicting a hunting scene, reproduced and enlarged especially for the exhibit.

below: Three glass bottles

below: Two fish joined to make a circle, a standard. From India, late 18th century. Made from silver. There are many myths and symbols that feature fish. In Hindu tradition, the fish was associated with Brahma and Manu, a progenitor of mankind. In addition, one myth is that a fish was believed to hold up the globe.

below: A portrait of Nawab Bairam Khan, painted around 1710-40, watercolour and gold on paper. He is pictured in profile, sitting alone in his peaceful garden.

below: Knife with jade handle carved in the shape of a horse head and neck.

from (just west of) Bayview to Bessarion

Posted: March 12, 2017 in construction, locations, public art
Tags: apartments, art, bronze, building, church, condos, construction, demolition, houses, mosaic, Panya Clark Espinal, plaza, public art, rocks, Roman Catholic, sculpture, Sheppard Ave., shrine, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, stores, street, subway, traffic, tree, trucks, TTC

Right now, the section of Sheppard Avenue East between Yonge and Leslie streets is a mix of old, middle aged and new – a hodge podge of sizes, styles and uses. It’s neither ugly nor pretty. It’s not sure if it’s city or suburban.

below: The intersection of Bayview and Sheppard from the southwest.

You’ll probably never hear anyone say, “Hey, let’s go for a walk along Sheppard”. So why was I there? I’ve driven along this stretch many times but I have never walked it. Have I been missing something?

below: A short distance west of Bayview is the modern brick St. Elizabeth of Hungary Roman Catholic Church, or Árpád–Házi Szt. Erzsébet Római Katolikus Templom according to their sign. Sunday mass is in Hungarian. If you are driving past on Sheppard Ave, it’s easy to miss the simple steeple and cross that marks this building as a church.

below: A large mosaic adorns one of the exterior walls.

below: A small shrine is in front of the church.

below: The south entrance to Bayview subway station. There are no escalators at this entrance – instead, there is an elevator and a LOT of stairs.

below: The artwork at Bayview station is by Panya Clark Espinal, titled ‘From Here Right Now’. Half an apple lies on the platform.

below: A salt or pepper shaker on the wall. I’ve only shown two of the images in the series. There are 24 in total and they are scattered throughout the station.

below: There is a small park behind the south entrance to Bayview subway station, Kenaston Garden Parkette where I saw this tree in bud. The first signs of spring are always wonderful to see. Today it’s -12C outside so I hope the tree is okay.

below: This little park was designed by Wilk Associates Landscape Architecture and it incorporates a large number of rocks including a glacial boulder found on the site. A bronze sculpture of a tree clinging to a rock by Reinhard Reitzenstein is one of the features of the park.

below: If you stand in the park and look east, you can’t miss the construction.

Construction is everywhere on Sheppard Avenue.

below: All of the houses on Cusack Court are now gone. Only the ‘No Exit’ sign remains.

below: The single family homes on the south side of Sheppard are slowly being demolished to make way for condo developments. At the corner of Sheppard Ave East and Greenbriar the proposed development of 184 residential units is the subject of an OMB prehearing on the 8 May 2017 (case number PL161113).

below: Five houses are empty and waiting to be demolished to make way for two buildings, 11 and 6 storeys, mixed use (i.e. retail at street level) and incorporating a few townhouses. In other words, the same old same old.

below: I said “same old same old” above because these types of buildings are popping up all over many major roads that are outside the downtown core. I suspect that Sheppard Avenue will be lined with structures like this one that’s already been built on the north side of Sheppard.

Many people make the argument that there isn’t the density to support a subway along Sheppard. I am of the opinion that if they’re not wrong now, they soon will be. Development and public transit are dependent on each other, a symbiotic relationship if you will. If you are affected by the construction along Eglinton for the new Crosstown line, you might agree that waiting for density only increases the problems and inconvenience (and cost?) of building new subway lines. Also, have you seen photos of what the area around Davisville or Finch (and others) stations looked like when the subway opened there? What is the required density? Why do we want to funnel even more people towards the overcrowded Yonge line anyhow? Is there an end to the questions we can ask?

And that’s another reason for my walk here…. to make note of the construction that is occurring whether we agree with it or not and to document some of the changes.

below: Two low rise apartment buildings.

below: Once upon a time there were a lot of these little houses along Sheppard (even more so on the west side of Yonge Street). At least one of these is still used as a family home but most are now offices or businesses.

below: The north entrance to Bessarion station

below: Looking east from Bessarion. You can see as far as the condos on Don Mills Road.

There is a reason that you haven’t seen many people in these pictures and it’s not because I waited for people to get out of the way. Sheppard Avenue is a “major arterial road” under Toronto’s road classification system and traffic movement is its major function. 20,000+ cars are expected to use it every day.

I don’t like to say it, but why would you be walking along Sheppard anyhow?

below: Bayview Village parking lot at the NE corner of Bayview and Sheppard.

As you might know, scroll down to the next blog post to see some pictures of Bessarion station!

mosaic people

Posted: November 20, 2015 in public art
Tags: Adelaide St. West, Bell Canada, ceramic, downtown, exterior, glass, glass ceiling, Immigrant Family, mosaic, pieces, public art, sculpture, small piece of something larger, smalti, Stephen Andrews, tiles, Tom Otterness, Toronto, Trump International hotel, walls, York Wilson

The other day I came across an interesting mosaic of which the picture below is just one part. There is a plaque beside it which says “Seen at a disance the mosaic reveals a crowd of people sheering and clapping, people of all backgrounds, which is the unique mix of Toronto. Up close, the images dissolve into abstract patterns of colour and light.”.

The mural is called ‘A Small Piece of Something Larger’ and it was designed by Stephen Andrews and fabricated in Montreal by Mosaika Art. It is made of smalti (hand cut mosaic glass), gold tiles and hand glazed ceramic tiles.

I’d love to show you a picture of the whole thing but I can’t. The piece is located in the taxi drop off and valet parking area of the Trump International Hotel. I dodged cars while I took these photos. The wall that it is on looks cheap, especially with the dreary doorway that cuts into the mosaic. Another strike against this piece is the very yellow nature of the lighting in this space. I played with the colour balance on the photo below to try to capture the true colour of the artwork.

It really deserves a better location.

The above picture was taken from the NE corner of Bay and Adelaide.
Just a few steps west on Adelaide is this mosiac (look up!):

It is above the entrance to the Bell Canada Building at 76 Adelaide West. Five panels, each twenty feet tall and five feet high, of glass mosaic tile are embedded in the cement of the building. It was designed by York Wilson and installed in 1965 when the building was constructed.

The theme of the piece is communication and each panel represents a different form of communication. From left to right: writing, drawing, music, voice, and satellites.

Staying on Adelaide, walk east again but continue to Yonge Street. Here you can find another hidden, almost secret, mosaic that many people have walked past and never seen. Find the silly little entrance way to what is called the Dynamic Funds Tower on the SE corner of Yonge and Adelaide. Stand outside the entrance but don’t go in. Now look up.

Three very different mosaics all within a few steps of each other.

….and there’s one last stop on our mosaic tour. It’s not a mosaic but looking at Stephen Andrews’ work at the Trump Hotel reminded me of a sculpture. If you walk down Yonge Street, just south of the railway tracks you’ll find a bronze ‘Immigrant Family’ by Tom Otterness.

A roly poly mother, father and baby in arms. A bit cartoonish but vague enough that they represent no one immigrant group. They could be any piece in the mosaic that is Toronto.

With a shoutout to Penny at Walking Woman since it was because of her blog post that I learned about the Otterness sculpture.

wall compositions

Posted: November 19, 2015 in abstract
Tags: brick, colours, corrugated, doors, exterior, faded, Ford logo, glass, metal, mosaic, old, paint, panes, red, texture, tiles, walls, windows, wires, wood

Walls are fascinating. They are made of different materials each with its own texture. Some walls have windows or doors of varying sizes and shapes. People put things on walls. Walls have colour, shape, texture, line, tone and sometimes text. In other words, all the visual elements of design are there to be discovered. The following are just a few that I have seen this summer.

Bathhouse raids mural

Posted: February 12, 2015 in graffiti and street art, history, locations
Tags: 1981, arrests, bathhouse raids, Church St., firetruck, history, LGBT, mosaic, murals, painting, police car, public art, street art, tiles, Toronto

The Bathhouse Raids by Christiano De Araujo is a mural on Church Street just south of Carlton.
Completed in the fall of 2013, it was the largest of the Church St. Mural Project pieces commissioned for WorldPride 2014.

The following photos were taken with a very wide angle lens
because of the size of the mural and because there are always cars parked in front of it.

On the 5th of February, 1981, Toronto police raided four bathhouses in what was known as ‘Operation Soap’.
Around 300 men were arrested. Most charges connected to the incident were eventually dropped or discharged, although some bathhouse owners were fined.

The event marked a major turning point in the history of the LGBT community in Canada.
The raids led to protests – the night after the raids, 3,000 people marched on 52 Division police headquarters and on Queen’s Park, smashing car windows and setting fires. That spring the city held its first Pride Parade.